[Reader-list] WHY MANMOHAN SHOULD THINK OF QUITTING

[Bipin Trivedi]

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/masala-noodles/entry/why-manmohan-s
hould-think-of-quitting 

BY KINGSHUK NAG


I am no fan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but when the bosses of the
party demand  resignation of the Prime Minister on moral grounds for his
failure to face a joint parliamentary probe into the 2G scam, I cannot but
agree with them. In a government consisting of coalition partners each with
its own standards of morality, Manmohan Singh stands as a beacon of honesty.
He is the “kamal” that grows in the midst of “kichad” (the lotus that grows
amid the mud). We have heard that many times. But there must be a limit to
how long this argument can be used. Even if the loss of Rs 1,77,000 crore in
the 2G spectrum allocation is a notional loss, the buck has to stop
somewhere. It cannot stop at Raja, because Raja is no “raja”. He is a
“mantra” in Manmohan Singh’s government. Singh cannot feign ignorance of all
that was happening around him. He cannot argue that Raja was only a “mantri”
in name.  Manmohan cannot say that in reality he was not Raja’s boss; Raja’s
boss was actually Karunanidhi. And therefore it is only after a very very
long time that Raja has been forced to resign and after an even longer time
CBI raided his house.
 
We know that, but the question is why is Singh the Prime Minister if his
ministers do not listen to him? In that case, it is better that he quits.
Why? Because the nation wants a Prime Minister who calls the shots. The
nation does not want a Prime Minister who in private fumes about the
dishonesty around him but is helpless to take any action. By resigning,
Singh will do a favour to himself and to the nation. By resigning he will
not have to carry the burden of the actions of some of his corrupt ministers
(some of whom — if the Radia tapes are to be believed — are Mr 15 Per Cents
and are partners in private airlines). Also by resigning, he will bring
sharp attention to  the issue of corruption, which is gnawing at the vitals
of the nation.
 
In no other country would Manmohan Singh have become the Prime Minister. In
a democracy like India, the job of the Prime Minister should be held by a
professional politician whose job is to rule the country. But Singh is no
politician. He started his life as a teacher of economics and went on to
join the ranks of the government as an economic administrator. His rise was
swift (reflecting that he was good at his job) and landed up as governor of
the RBI (which  is again the job of an  economic adminstrator dealing with
the monetary policy of the country). In 1991, when Narasimha Rao became
Prime Minister he was looking for a professional economic administrator to
reorient and liberalize economic policies. The aim was to bring the moribund
economy out of morass.  The job of the finance minister was first offered to
IG Patel, another first-rate economic administrator, who had also been RBI
governor. But when he refused, the choice fell on Manmohan Singh. When Singh
became finance minister, his boss expected him to handle the job as a
professional economist and to allow him to be a member of Parliament got him
elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam. His five-year term as finance
minister must have taught Manmohan Singh some political lessons and at the
end of the government’s term in 1996, he continued to be in the Congress.
Singh was 64 years old then. He continued to assist in economic manifesto
making for the Congress party and was busy with work in the Rajiv Gandhi
Foundation.
 
The manner in which Manmohan became Prime Minister in 2004 is well known.
The Congress came to power at the head of the UPA coalition with a narrow
margin. The NDA opposition gave out signals that it would rake up the issue
of Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin in a big way. As a result, in a
masterstroke, Sonia raising the banner of sacrifice placed Manmohan on the
“gaddi”. The move probably came as a surprise to him too. The candidature of
the more qualified Pranab Mukherjee was ignored as he did not meet the
“trust” requirement of 10 Janpath. Manmohan was the ideal candidate: he was
good at his job, he was honest with no stigma of scams attached to his name
and more importantly he had no political base and therefore could not try to
undermine 10 Janpath. This was an important consideration because Narasimha
Rao in his tenure had tried to become the boss of the Congress and erode the
powers of the “first family” of the Congress. So Manmohan Singh became the
Prime Minister of the country but in some ways — pardon my saying so — he
was the Prime Minister to the “maharani”.
 
The pitiable condition that Manmohan Singh finds himself in today is a
result of this arrangement of sharing power. The Prime Minister has today
two bosses: the Congress president and the coalition partners of the
government. Obviously Manmohan is subservient to the supreme leader of his
party. Additionally the coalition partners also do not bother two figs for
him. They would rather pay heed to Sonia. People like Raja have their own
boss like Karunanidhi. So long as Karunanidhi is happy with him, Raja is
happy; what Manmohan thinks of him does not bother him much.
 
Raja is not bothered about Manmohan Singh, but as a citizen of this country
I am bothered about the fate of the Prime Minister. I, and surely many
others like me, want an empowered Prime Minister who can rule the country
with a free hand. Manmohan Singh is an honest man and is also competent.
This is saying a lot in these times of Raja. But if he is not empowered,
there is no use of his being the Prime Minister of the country in these
extraordinary times when the faith of the people in their leaders is at its
lowest ebb. And by the way, nobody can empower a Prime Minister. He himself
has to do that. If he cannot, then he should get out voluntarily. For the
sake of the nation.